Method of preparing freshly spun cakes of rayon for aftertreatment



March 17, 1959 NRY 2,877,545

W. V. HE METHOD OF PREPARING FRESHLY SPUN CAKES OF RAYON FOR AFTERTREATMENT 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 26, 1957 INVENTOR /24 William IZHeIZr BY W ATTORNEY March 17 1959 w. v. HENRY 2,877,545

METHOD OF PREPARING FRESHLY spun CAKES 0F RAYON FOR AFTERTREATMENT 2 SheetsSheet 2 Filed Sept. 26, 1957 William IZHemy INVENTOR.

BY ATTORNEY METHOD OF PREPARING F RESHLY SPUN CAKES OF RAYON FOR AFTERTREATMENT William V. Henry, Asheville, C., assignor to American Enka Corporation, Enka, N. C., a corporation of Delaware Application September 26, 1957', Serial No. 686,816

2 Claims. (Cl. 29-428) The present application is a continuation-in-part of application Serial No. 339,373, filed February 27, 1953, now abandoned, which in turn is a division of Patent No. 2,728,529.

This invention relates to a method of preparing freshly spun cakes of rayon for aftertreatments and more particularly to a method for inserting an expansible member into a viscose rayon cake to function as a protection during the subsequent handling involving liquid aftertreatments.

Normally, freshly spun cakes of rayon are either subjected to a lacing operation such as is shown in United States Patent No. 1,988,788, or to a socking operation such as that shown in United States Patent No. 2,418,657. Both of these systems are more or less complicated and time consuming and it has been proposed to insert an expansible member into the inside of an acid rayon cake immediately after formation in lieu of the foregoing. This proposal is disclosed and described in Patent No. 2,645,554. The present invention constitutes an improvement over the invention described in said patent in providing an improved method for inserting the eXpansible member within the hollow interior of the freshly formed cake.

It is an object of this invention to provide a method for the quick and convenient insertion of an expansible cloth protective member within the hollow interior of a cake of rayon.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof in conjunction with the annexed drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a view in side elevation of the apparatus employed for coiling a permeable resilient member to be inserted within a cake of rayon;

Figure 2 is a view in section taken on the line 2--2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the coiling spiral which winds the resilient member to a diameter sufiiciently small to permit insertion in the hollow interior of a cake;

Figure 4 shows the initial period of manually feeding the liquid permeable member into the mouth of the elongated tubular spiral;

Figure 5 shows the liquid permeable member wrapped in the tubular spiral member in conforming sprilal form;

Figure 6 shows the cake of yarn axially disposed over the tubular spiral member having the liquid permeable member mounted therein;

Figure 7 shows the latter stage of unwinding the liquid permeable member to disengage it from the rigid tubular spiral and disposing it firmly about the interior of the cake; and

Figure 8 shows the completion of the unwinding with the liquid permeable member in stationary engagement with the interior of the cake.

Referring now in greater detail to the drawings, the nu r 2,877,545 Patented Mar. 17, 1959 2 meral 10 represents anelongated spiral of stiff sheet material such as sheet metal having at its outer end a guiding f'lce lip 11 and being at its inner end attached to a bar 12. The

bar 12 is mounted in bearings 13 and 14 which are in turn mounted on standards 15 and 16 extending upwardly from a work table 17. Between the bearings 13 and 14, a sprocket wheel 18 is attached to the shaft 12 and over this sprocket wheel there passes a chain 19, one end of which is connected to a spring 20 which in turn is connected to a brace 21 which extends between and is fastened to the legs of. the table 17.

The other end of the chain 19 is pivotally attached at 22 to a foot lever 23 which is pivotally connected at 24 to a rod 25 which extends between the legs of the table 17.

It is now apparent that by stepping on the treadle 26 of the foot lever 23, the spiral 10 is caused to rotate in a counterclockwise direction as it is viewed in Figure 2. This rotation is accompanied by elongation of spring 20 so that when the operators foot is removed from the treadle 26, the energy stored in the spring 20 returns the spiral to the normal position shown in Figure 2 which, of course, results in clockwise movement from the position which the spiral assumes when the treadle is depressed.

In operation, a piece of cloth 27 which is made of normally fiat liquid permeable material of rectangular shape having each long edge bound over a flexible springlike wire, is held with a short edge facing the mouth of the spiral 10. Thereupon, the spiral is rotated in the counterclockwise direction as it is viewed in Figure 2, thus feeding the liquid permeable material in a direction normal to the axis of the elongated spiral it) and wrapping the cloth into a spiral shape within the spiral 10. To effect this wrapping, the operator simply holds the cloth 27 by the ends of the opposite long edges adjacent the short edge which is fed into the mouth of the spiral 1i), and the rotation of the spiral 10 forms the cloth into a spiral shape.

With the cloth wound into the spiral 10, the operator next places a cake of rayon 28 over the spiral 10 and releases the treadle while again grasping the same part of the opposite long edges of the cloth. This results in an unwinding of the cloth and the resilient wire edges will cause it to engage firmly the inner walls of the cake 28 in which it has been inserted. (See Figure 8.)

The dimensions or" the spiral 10 have not been given, but it will be understood that the spiral is of a length slightly greater than the height of the cake which it is to serve. Likewise, it is apparent that the overall diametrical dimension of the spiral must be less than the core diameter of any cake with which it is used. The total internal length of the spiral must be slightly greater than the length of the cloth to be wound. The spiral angle must be of SllfilClflll magnitude that succeeding coils of the spiral are spaced apart sufficiently to accommodate the cloth protective member.

What is claimed is:

l. A method of inserting a liquid permeable member that is radially, spirally, expansible into the hollow interior of a freshly formed cake of rayon to thereby firmly engage the inner walls thereof for protection during liquid aftertreatments which comprises manually feeding a normally flat, flexible, resilient liquid permeable member into the mouth of an elongated tubular spiral of rigid sheet material in a direction normal to the axis thereof, rotating the rigid spiral in a direction toward the liquid permeable member while retaining the liquid permeable member stationary in a rotary direction to wrap the same into conforming spiral form, axially disposing a cake of rayon over the rigid spiral and causing the flexible, resilient liquid permeable spiral member to expand radially and firmly engage the inner walls of the cake of rayon by reversing the direction of rotation of the rigid spiral while retaining the liquid permeable member stationary in a rotary direction.

2. A method of inserting a liquid permeable member that is radially, spirally, expansible into the hollow interior of a freshly formed cake of rayon to thereby firmly engage the inner walls thereof for protection during liquid aftertreatments which comprises manually feeding the short edge of a normally flat, liquid permeable rectangular member having its long edges bound over with flexible wire, into the mouth of an elongated tubular spiral of rigid sheet material in a direction normal to the axis thereof, rotating the rigid spiral in a direction toward the liquid permeable member while retaining the liquid wrap the same into conforming spiral form, axially disposing a cake of rayon over the rigid spiral and causing the wire edges together with the liquid permeable spiral member to expand radially and firmly engage the inner walls of the cake of rayon by reversing the direction of rotation of the rigid spiral while retaining the liquid permeable member stationary in a rotary direction.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

